Timm Ringhofer's Paper for Contract Grade of "A"

Timm Ringhofers Contract for an A Grade
Report on Attendance of Minnesota Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference
April 16-17, 1999
Craguns, Brainerd, Minnesota

Kuffy (Chris Kuffenkam) and I arrived at Craguns on Thursday night before the
conference began. We were late for registration, but after a few minutes, we found our
way to our cabin. The five men in the math department were staying in the cabin. I was
expecting an actual cabin, but when we went inside, it was no ordinary cabin. A
fireplace, two bathrooms, two showers, two bedrooms with two beds each, and THREE
TVs. We had hit the big time. We spent the rest of the evening enjoying our favorite
beverages and topics of conversation.

Friday morning came very quickly, and we were served a buffet breakfast in which they
served about 1000 people. My first meeting was Some Ideas for the First Week of AP
Calculus presented by Harry Kitts of Bloomington Jefferson High School. We did more
discussing of what everyone else did the first week rather that Harry presenting. With
about 10 minutes left, he went through a packet of worksheets that he had accumulated
over the years. Some of these are going to be useful, while others will not. Probably the
most interesting aspect of the presentation is what they discussed the first week. Most of
the information was common knowledge or inferential material. Many of the topics
covered in calculus are hands-on ideas that we use the calculus to describe the
mathematics. I am eagerly awaiting the chance to try these ideas out next year!

The next session that I attended was Integrated Mathematics, Calculus, and
Technology. The brochure stated that the following was going to be presented. The
content, methodology, and technology of the integrated mathematics curriculum are a
good fit for the Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and reform calculus
curricula. The TI-89 will be demonstrated. Well, this was about half right. The
presenter, Ed Anderson of the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis, showed his views
of the International Baccalaureate program and how it worked when he taught. He then
presented one problem for the TI-89, which he covered so fast that I just gave up. I
ended up leaving before the end of the presentation because I was so disgusted with what
was being presented and how it was presented. If the brochure says that something is
going to be covered, then it should be covered. Just dont put information into the
brochure to get people to show up!

A Fresh Look at the Integral by Arnie Ostebee was the next workshop that I attended.
The workshops at the conference were 105 minute meetings, while the sessions were 60
minutes. I attended this workshop because of its calculus theme, and Ostebee, along with
a fellow St. Olaf professor named Zorn, have written a new calculus book that is being
looked at as the new wave in teaching calculus. Ostebee and Zorn have written a
textbook that is very Minnesotan. Maybe this is why everyone that I took to really likes
this book. We spent about 45 minutes of the session actually doing problems in groups
about integrals. The problems we did were picked on the basis that they would give us a
different way of thinking about the integral. It really did this, and I became sold on some
of the ideas presented in the Ostebee-Zorn book. Again, I look forward to trying them
out next year with my calculus students next year. Probably the most pivotal part of this
workshop was who I got to work with in our groups. Randy Stoick is a teacher at
Monticello High School. We got to talking and he has been teaching AP Calculus for
nine years. At that point, he became an expert in the field in my eyes. We started
sharing ideas and experiences from our teaching. He also ended up sending me many
sample AP Exams to use in preparing for the test on May 13th. I have a new resource,
and I truly believe that these conferences are there to provide these types of
opportunities.

I had never attended the Minnesota Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference
before this year. I have been missing the boat over the past couple of years by not
attending. I have every intention of attending every year after this because I cannot
afford to miss out on this type of information and meeting people who do the same thing
that I do.